Candidate for Director

Joff Van Reenan, CAI, AARE

What prompted your decision to run for a position on the NAA board?

I am a current sitting board member and feel I have more work to do. It’s been an incredibly challenging as well as rewarding period for me. Still, I know I haven’t yet discharged my full duty to the NAA. With the membership’s permission and vote, I wish to finish what I started by continuing to give my time and expertise to improve what we started after the pandemic changed our global community.

 

Why did you join the NAA initially, and what can a member do to maximize their membership?

My wife told me to! She’s way smarter than I am, so I listened. It’s also had the most significant impact on my 31-year auction career. There are so many resources that the NAA offers. Even after being a member for 20 years, I am still finding new avenues, classes, and mentors that improve both my calling as well as my life. The networking and friendships I have garnered during my decades in the NAA have literally changed my life.

 

What is the most pressing issue for today’s auction industry?

Relevance! We currently live in a very segmented and angry world. Everybody wants to be secure and have their families safe, prosperous, and healthy while being offered the necessary respect and space to live. To do this, we need to take care of both our personal and professional lives. If this is out of balance, one’s life will be as well. We need to secure our industry through lobbying and keeping ahead of any potential future legislation that would affect our industry. We also need to stay relevant to our members as well as the public. This encompasses myriad issues, i.e., growing the association and embracing a very fast-evolving and changing future through technology by empowering our members to understand it and leverage it for their benefit. We also need to focus on keeping ahead of industry and market trends with a think tank of junior and senior members. The executions will give back to our members as well as empower and prepare them for an uncertain but exciting future.

 

What specific initiatives would you like to see included as the NAA looks toward 2030 and beyond?

Future-proofing our association as well as ourselves on a number of levels so that all the uncertainty, anxiousness, and concern is dealt with as best we can given the shifting global tides. We urgently need to convene that think tank of the brightest minds to deal with the short, medium, and long-term goals we have set and will continue to set. Communicating to our members more about what this will entail and engaging with them more to dive deeper into our wealth of membership knowledge and wisdom will help us draw an excellent blueprint for our future. Only through these measures will we grow the wealth of intellectual property in our members and future-proof ourselves by driving more relevant education. These channels must be made accessible to our members and, more importantly, to the public. This will grow the NAA brand to make it the leading and only voice of the industry. We have to do this. Auctions must be great again.